Goldman, Morgan Stanley bid to buy into MapmyIndia's Rs 1k-cr IPO: Report

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley are among institutional investors bidding to participate in the initial public offering of Indian digital-map provider MapmyIndia, according to people familiar with the matter.
 

Mutual funds of India’s HDFC, State Bank of India, Aditya Birla Group and ICICI Bank Ltd. are also bidding to become so-called anchor investors in the IPO, said the people, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public. MapmyIndia, officially C.E. Info Systems Ltd., said Monday it’s raising as much as 10.4 billion rupees ($138 million) by selling shares at 1,000 rupees to 1,033 rupees apiece.

The company set aside less than 4 billion rupees of stock for anchor investors and has received bids for more than 30 times that, according to one of the people. The IPO is set to value the mapmaker at about 55 billion rupees, said one of the people. MapmyIndia said anchor investors can officially bid on Dec. 8, and the public share sale will run from Dec. 9 to Dec. 13. The stock is scheduled to begin trading on Dec. 21.

A representative for MapmyIndia declined to comment on the anchor investors. Representatives for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as well as asset managers of HDFC, SBI, Aditya Birla and ICICI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

MapmyIndia’s data powers Apple Inc.’s Maps and Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa voice assistant, and customers also include Mercedes-Benz, McDonald’s Corp. and e-commerce company Flipkart. Based in the Delhi suburb of Okhla, MapmyIndia is backed by Qualcomm Inc. and Walmart Inc.-owned payments company PhonePe.

A rally in India’s stock market has led to a throng of internet startups racing to list in the public markets. While most debuts have been successful, the recent lackluster performance of the country’s biggest startup, digital payments pioneer Paytm, proved an exception. Yet the IPO rush continues unabated and MapmyIndia’s share sale is slated alongside at least three others this week.

MapmyIndia is profitable, unlike many of India’s higher-profile startups such as Zomato Ltd. and Paytm. In the six months through September, the mapmaker’s revenue from operations was 1 billion rupees, compared with 1.52 billion rupees for the full preceding fiscal year.

The company was founded by Rakesh and Rashmi Verma, the husband-and-wife duo who continue to run it and remain promoters, according to its IPO prospectus.

MapmyIndia, also backed by Japanese mapmaker Zenrin Co., began operations in the early 1990s in what is considered one of the most challenging countries for mapping. Its products now include AI-powered maps that it builds for clients including Avis Budget Group Inc. and Hyundai Motor Co.